"One of the most beautiful works ever issued"
Gravure et Fonderie de C. Derriey. Spécimen-Album.
Paris: C. Derriey, Rue Notre-Dame-Des-Champs, 6 & 12, 1862.
Price: $4,500.00
About the item
[4]pp (price list and index, printed recto and verso on 2 leaves) and 182 (of 183?) plates, (printed recto only, approx. 50 in one, two, three or more colors, the color plates printed by Imprimerie Paul Dupont). With a large printed trade card or separate specimen, laid in. Folio. Contemporary morocco-backed pebbled cloth boards, spine gilt, minor staining to rear cover, silk moire endpapers, gilt edges. Bookplate on front pastedown. Jammes 127; Burke, Typographia 520; Bigmore & Wyman, Bibliography of Printing, p. 163; Gray, 19th cent. ornamented typefaces, p. 146; St. Bride Foundation Catalogue, p. 245.
Item #370382
Type and ornament designer and typefounder Charles Derriey (1808–1877) issued this elaborate trade catalogue to coincide with the International Exhibition in London. The work is composed of the following sections: vignetes, ornate letters, pen flourishes, swashed and shaded cartouches, filets, rulings, music types, and finally the Specimen-Album itself: examples of trade cards, bill and letterheads, certificates, etc., all printed using the decorative materials and motifs in the preceeding samples. "One of the most beautiful works ever issued from the French, or, indeed any other press" (Bigmore & Wyman, Bibliography of Printing, p. 163). "This is one of the most colorful and elaborate type specimen books of all time. The precision of casting and fitting together of the ornaments when combined with incredible press work and register of the colors, silver and gold is truly impressive" (Burke, Typographia 520). The tools used to decorate the spine were designed by Derriey.
